Tag: dinner

Christmas in Mexico

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Campground Review, Camping, Friends, Mexico, RV'ing, Sightseeing, Touring, Traveling

We left our winter home at Rovers Roost on Saturday December 18th and met up with our friend Heidy at her home in Green Valley AZ for the night.

Sunday morning bright and early (still dark) we left her place about 6:30 and headed down I-10 and I-19 to the border crossing at Nogales.

Once we crossed the border onto MX15 we still had an inspection station, an immagration station, and 3 tolls booths to get through.

We stayed on MX15 (a four lane divided highway) down to Hermosillo where we then headed west about 60 more miles on MX100 to Bahia de Kino (Kino Bay) where we then pulled in to Islandia Marina and RV Park.

Our host Martita greeted us with a smile and pointed out two possible sites for us. We chose the one nestled under a big tree overlooking the Sea of Cortez.

We have a large site with plenty of shade over the coach, 1000′ of sandy beach, sun and water out our front window

The nights are cool, in the 40’s and 50’s and the days are breezy and in the low 80’s with lots of sunshine.

Our first full day found us keeping busy going about 20 minutes east to San Miguel Aleman to exchange our dollars for pesos, to pick up a few groceries, and to a local Telcel agent to get a 30 day MX sim card for my phone.

Just to give you an idea of how money works here, $100 American is about 2000 MX pesos.

Our groceries at a super market cost us $8.90, my 30 day unlimited talk and text (4.5gb data) sim card cost me $11.50, and our 30 amp full hookup site overlooking the beach at the Sea of Cortez costs $15/night.

While last night we cooked brats on the grill at our home by the beach, tonight we ate at Pulpo Loco (Crazy Octopus) in town. We got 3 combo plates of fried fish, bacon wrapped cheese stuffed shrimp, salad, fries, and fried shrimp. All 3 meals along with two bottles of Coke and a huge bottled water was 520 pesos (about $26)

Our dinner at Pulpo Loco in Kino Bay

Our first day here at Islandia RV Park we had the pleasure of meeting Julio, one of the regulars whose been spending winters here since 2007. A retired NYC firefighter, he’s quite a character. Although he doesn’t own or even manage the park, he loves to play host and invited us to join the gang at his place anytime we see anyone there.

Julio and others invited us down for Ray’s 89th birthday party complete with pizza and birthday cake

  • Julio, one of the regulars
Ray’s 89th Birthday Party

Thursday morning came too soon and it was time to say goodbye to our host Martita and head further south about 120 miles to Totonaka RV Park at San Carlos, also on the east side of the Sea of Cortez.

Saying goodbye to our host Martita at Islandia RV Park (Bahia de Kino, Sonora, MX)

San Carlos is a much larger town that Kino Bay and is more a tourist area loaded with restaurants and curio shops.

The park is very nice with over 140 FHU RV sites and about 25 motel rooms. Heidy is in one of their rooms and we are in the coach. They have a pool, hot tub, pickleball courts and they run a clean tight ship here, they’re always cleaning, raking, and checking the property. At this park our FHU site cost $26/nite (tourist area pricing).

140+ sites at Totonaka RV Park @ San Carlos, Sonora, MX
Map of our route ending at San Carlos, Guaymas Sonora, MX

The day after Christmas, there is the annual lighted boat parade right off the beach and we walked down to watch as about twenty five or thirty large vessels dressed in hundreds of Christmas lights paraded by. It was a fun (and free) evening.

I’m sorry the pictures are blurry, it was dark and the camera had a hard time focusing.

Now the weather turned cool. Gray skies after Christmas and temps in the 50’s and 60’s so no beach time for now. But there ARE still PLENTY of places to eat that many of our neighbors here at Totonaka have told us that we need to check out.

The girls went shopping today, they were gone about 4 hours and came back all excited about what they stumbled across … a place where Heidy and/or Kathy and I could rent an RV spot either monthly or year-round and at a very attractive price!

We talked at some length about the possibilities and decided that all three of us would make a 2nd visit tomorrow. In the meantime … what else? It’s dinner time!

  • Kathy and Heidy (after a great meal!)

We went back to Daniel’s place the day after Christmas to “scope it out” a little more. He has four covered RV spots that are 60+ feet deep and about 30′ wide with an add’l 12’x60′ concrete patio. All sites are Full Hook-Up (water, electric, and sewer). The property is fenced and gated and Daniel and his wife live full-time on the property. He made Heidy a really sweet deal ($250/month) to park her rig there year round and stay in it full-time or for a few months at a time. Two of the four sites are occupied by folks who live there year-round. NOTE: Take a look at the supports for the roof. These are NOT trees but actually they are BRANCHES from giant eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus is a very dense and heavy wood and makes for an excellent building material in this dry climate.

Daniel’s RV sites for rent

While visiting Daniel he drew a map for us to check out the “lookout” and one of the high-end new home developments on the bay.

A small peek at one of the many new home developments just on the edge of San Carlos

To round out the afternoon (and our last day in Mexico) we decided to …. what else? Try out another restaurant of course!

The restaurant celebrates the “Day of the Dead” which is a Mexican holiday on November 1st and 2nd. It celebrates the lives of loved ones who have died over the last year.

From Google: “Ancient Mesoamericans believed that death was part of the journey of life. Rather than death ending life, they believed that new life came from death. This cycle is often associated with the cyclical nature of agriculture, whereby crops grow from the ground where the last crop lies buried.”

All in all, we had a great time visiting Mexico and making new friends. In a nutshell we have to say that;

  1. The Mexican people are gracious, friendly, accommodating, and thankful that we were there spending our money in their communities.
  2. The food cost is about one-half of what a meal (restaurant or grocery store) would cost in the states.
  3. Fuel is about the same cost or even a little more than here in the states,
  4. and the roads are generally terrible. Certainly not everywhere, but there are plenty of areas where you have to wonder if the RV is just going to shake apart right there on the spot.
  5. And the poverty is nearly everywhere, at least it’s not at all hard to find. We say plenty of people living in tin and cardboard shacks with no electricity and no running water. It’s sad to see such distress.

We drove our last day straight through from San Carlos to Casa Grande AZ (395 miles) and we have to say it’s “good to be back”.

Until next time, we wish you and yours a Happy New Year. We hope it’s a safe and healthy one for all of us.

Herb and Kathy

Tourist Review – Hot Springs SD

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Food, RV'ing, Touring, Tourism Review, Traveling

Our stay at Angostura gave us the opportunity to spend some time in Hot Springs visiting the local grocery store, the post office, one of the local barbers, the Pioneer Museum, the ACE hardware store, and at least three of the local restaurants more than once each during our stay.

We enjoyed visiting with the locals while we patronized their businesses and sought out opportunities to visit with other “travelers” along the way.

Fall River (also the name of the county) runs right down through downtown from north to south along the main drag. There are very few “new” buildings in town with most having been built in the early 1900’s and many including City Hall, the County Courthouse, the old Evans Hotel, the town school, the old hospital and a host of others were built in the late 1800’s.

These buildings are not only old, but beautiful as well for they are made of the brown-pink colored sandstone mined from one of the local quarries back in the day.

As always, click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger picture.

  • Check out the fire escape
  • Pioneer Museum, former school
  • Old hospital
  • Union Train Depot
  • County Courthouse
  • Former Evans Hotel
  • Union Train Depot

Here below are some pictures of the inside of the former Hot Springs School (used until 1963). It is now the home of the Fall River Pioneer History Museum. It’s three stories of classrooms plus a fourth floor attic that they are currently working to rehab into an art studio and gallery for community use. This school is up on the hill overlooking the town and the students had to climb up a couple hundreds steps (I’m guessing) to make it to class.

And today we see Moms and Dads all over the country driving their kids down a hundred foot driveway to sit in temperature controlled comfort while waiting for a school bus to come and pick them up! Remember when our parents would say “Quit complaining, when I was your age we had to walk 5 miles uphill both ways to and from school!” We were led to believe that we had it lucky, but now these kids today got it lucky even more so!

  • The spiral slide fire escape
  • Period furnishings
  • Vintage dental office
  • Antique laundry equipment
  • The former Hot Springs School (until 1963)

There are a lot more buildings to marvel at in Hot Springs as well as some nice neighborhoods to drive through as well.

With regard to any of the springs in town, we did not take advantage of a visit personally. The Evans Plunge is the largest, oldest, and most popular boasting a 70′ x 200′ indoor hot mineral spring fed pool that is tempered by cool fresh water from the Fall River. Another newer spring and Spa called Moccasin Spring caters to those that desire spa type treatments in addition to their outdoor multi-level soaking pools.

The following paragraph is taken from https://hs-sd.org/history (history of Hot Springs web site)

“The biggest development in baths was the Plunge, built by Fred Evans in 1891. The building was constructed of wood, iron, and glass, and covered a pool approximately seventy by two hundred feet. Various slides, diving boards, rafts, and other accessories were provided for the enjoyment of the guests. Evans Plunge is still operating at the same site. In 1893, our sandstone City Hall (still used today), and an impressive sandstone public school building (now the Fall River County Museum) were built. By the end of 1893 the population of Hot Springs was estimated at 3350, and the city had laid more than five miles of sidewalk and graded more than three miles of streets in the preceding three years.”

And what’s traveling across the country without experiencing the local “Mom’n Pop” diners and cafes? I mean “Ya Gotta Eat” right?

We ate breakfast or lunch at; Morning Sunshine Cafe, Upper Crust Diner, Winners Circle Bar and Casino (at the bowling alley), Taco John’s, and the (new) Chicago Street Cafe that’s inside WillieJax Antiques and Pawn Shop.

  • 1/3 pound Patty Melt
  • Turkey Bacon Wrap
  • Breakfast scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and gravy
  • Bacon Blue Burger at The Winners Circle
  • Two Cows Creamery (Rasberry Chocolate Chip)
  • Indian Taco @ Upper Crust
  • Chicken Noodle Bread Bowl @ Upper Crust
  • Upper Crust Cafe
  • WillieJax Antiques and Pawn

We enjoyed our stay at Angostura Recreation Area and our frequent visits into Hot Springs (only about 4 miles away) but it’s time to move on down the road and meet up with our friends David and Susan. We will be traveling tandem for about the next month as we make our way back to Arizona for the winter.

So long for now, thanks for riding along and please feel free to leave a comment down below. If you’re not already getting automatic email notification of our new posts, you can look over in the right margin (sidebar) and enter your email address. Then you’ll get a brief email anytime we post an update.

Be good, take care of each other and if you’re on the road … safe travels to you. See you next time.

Herb and Kathy

OK, so I’ll chime in …

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Traveling

We see so many references to “cooking with my Instant Pot”, it seems to be the new craze. (Or maybe not NEW anymore, I’m sure there’s some other new kitchen gadget out by now – We’re just behind the times.)

In any event, we really do love our Instant Pot. Thanks to our son and daughter-in-law (David and Lisa) who gave us our Instant Pot (IP) for Christmas a couple years ago, we are now fans as well.

We have to admit .. it was kind of intimidating at first. But as we experimented we came to really appreciate the; convenience, the speed, how easy it cleans up, and how thoroughly it cooks our meat and veggies through and through. It’s a very precise cooker, being controlled by a microprocessor so the cooking is highly repeatable. Just set HI, MED, or LOW and set the time, then push START. It’ll tell you when it’s up to pressure, when it starts timing, and when it’s done! Easy-Peazy..

We enjoy cooking (and eating); cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, corn on the cob, Acorn Squash, zuchinni, Spaghetti Squash, chicken (tenderloins, breasts, thighs) beef or pork ribs. And if we’re going to a pot luck, we even take homemade potato salad where you cook the potatoes AND the eggs together in less than 5 minutes!

But here’s a video on my favorite dish. Simple as can be and there are links at the bottom of the video to purchase any of the products featured in the video.

Full Disclaimer –
By making your Amazon purchases from our site, we will receive from Amazon a small percentage of your purchase and it doesn’t cost you any more. We’d really appreciate your help. Thank you, Herb & Kathy

Here are some links to the products in the video

https://amzn.to/2Yu1F4b – Instant Pot 6 Qt.
https://amzn.to/2UaDust – Coleman Table Top Propane Gas Grill
https://amzn.to/2UT71UI – Kumana Avocado Hot Sauce
https://amzn.to/2HIDYQS – Silicone Basting Brush
(You’ll need to buy the ribs at the local grocery stored, eh?)

If you don’t already have an IP, and if you’re like us and don’t have a lot of counter room, the IP cooker is ideal in that you can load it up, lock the top and then with one hand, you can easily set it on the floor to cook.

We live in our motor home full-time. We had precious little table and/or counter space and having the ability to set this device on the floor just below the front of the fridge frees up table and counter space so we can prepare our salad while the main course is cooking.

So take a look and I suggest buying the original Instant Pot rather than a less expensive imitation. You’ll be glad you did … if you use it. Like anything else, if it sits on your counter or in a cupboard and doesn’t get used – then it’s worthless.

Thanks for coming along ….

Lake Havasu & Parker Dam

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Sightseeing

While we were at Quartzsite, we decided to take another day trip and be able to check something off our bucket list.  We wanted to see Lake Havasu and London Bridge.  One of our fellow workampers suggested we be sure to take a small detour on our way to check out Parker Dam at Parker, AZ as well.

We weren’t real keen on going to Lake Havasu City, but we had a Chili’s gift card, so we drove on in for lunch and to see the famous bridge.

Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia about the lake and Parker Dam;

“Lake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the lake’s eastern shore. The reservoir has an available capacity of 619,400 acre feet (764,000,000 m3). The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938. The lake’s primary purpose is to store water for pumping into two aqueducts. Prior to the dam construction, the area was home to the Mohave Indians. The lake was named (in 1939) after the Mojave word for blue.[1] In the early 19th century, it was frequented by beaver trappers. Spaniards also began to mine the area along the river.”

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I was, of course, fascinated by the dam and how they move the water through the gates and into the hydro-electric plant.  But we both enjoyed the beauty of the blue water and the majestic mountains of the area.

Kathy had read to me in the car that the London Bridge there at Lake Havasu City IS the actual bridge from London, England, (I assumed it was a replica). But no, the fella that developed the city purchased the bridge from the city of London.

Here’s an excerpt from golakehavasu.com

“In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge. Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed the winning bid of $2,460,000 on April 18, 1968.

McCulloch came by this figure by doubling the estimated cost of dismantling the structure, which was $1.2 million, bringing the price to $2.4 million. He then added on $60,000 – a thousand dollars for each year of his age at the time he estimated the bridge would be reconstructed in Arizona.

Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled. The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. Following reconstruction of the London Bridge, Lake Havasu City rededicated it in a ceremony on October 10, 1971. Since then, it has consistently remained a favorite among Arizona attractions, drawing in visitors from around the globe.”

After knowing THIS information, it certainly made me have a much higher respect for the bridge and the effort of so many to bring it here to Arizona.

Stay tuned … more to follow from the Quartzsite trip (Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge & “The Naked Bookseller”)

 

What? No Can Opener??????

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Camping, Equipment, Food

What the heck?  Didn’t we bring a can opener?

We pulled in to Fallen Rock RV Park about 6:30 or so and I really didn’t feel like getting the charcoal grill out and fired up.  It was hot and muggy and we both needed a shower.  We decided to close the windows and turn on the A/C units and just make some tuna salad sandwiches for dinner.

But wait …. where the h___ is the can opener?  Kathy was ready to give up, but not Herbie!

2016-09-06-19-46-00

Needle nose pliers and a hammer did the trick.  I made up tuna salad with a little chopped onion, spread it on some rye bread, put on a slice or two of provolone and fired up the George Foreman grill and we had paninis!

Hey by the way, Kathy found that Sav-A-Lot carries Reeser’s brand red potato salad … and it’s yummy!  Walmart also has an excellent red potato salad.  You can find it in their deli section but it IS prepackaged, not the bulk stuff they sell in the glass case.

Until next time,

HerbOnlyColor

 

What a GREAT Eatery! – Nichols West

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Food, Friends, Sightseeing

So some of the other campers here at The North Ranch told us about a great little restaurant just up the road in “downtown” Congress, AZ.  The town of Congress has; a gas station/convenience store, a post office, an auto repair shop, and little else.

But nestled right next door to the auto repair shop, visitors to the area will discover a very popular local eatery (looks like a little old diner) known as “Nichols West”.

Simon, along with his wife and crew, put out a great menu of other than typical southwest cooking.  You see, Simon came over to the states from London, England 37 years ago and ultimately developed and ran 3 restaurants in the Hamptons.  At some point, they leased out the restaurants there and, having made a short year-long stop in Zanesville, OH ultimately came out to Congress and opened this upscale eclectic (there’s that word) little restaurant/bar that offers both inside and outside (on the patio) seating.

We went there twice.  Once for lunch when I had their Shrimp Tempura and Kathy had a spinach/strawberry/mango salad.  Our 2nd visit was last night for a late dinner after spending the day with Paul and Sue Middaugh up in Sedona.  There’s another post on our trip to Sedona.